The subject matter disclosed herein relates to configuring equipment monitoring components.
Industrial plants are designed to employ various types of components for monitoring the operation of other equipment within the plant. These components may be physically and/or electrically attached with each other and may have a communication interface with a remotely located monitoring apparatus. Such a communication interface is typically required to be configured for proper and accurate operation of the monitoring apparatus. The typical procedure for configuring such a communications interface can be time consuming and vulnerable to inaccuracy.
In a typical system, a user walks to within viewing proximity of the equipment (e.g., a turbine) and then identifies characteristics and external markings that are visible on each monitoring component, such as the type, manufacture and model of each component, and then records such information, such as for example, via a writing on a notepad, and then walks over to the monitoring apparatus, which might be located 200 yards away from the equipment. The user then interacts with a user interface provided by the monitoring apparatus and communicates information to the monitoring apparatus typically via a keyboard and/or a mouse, that represents the characteristics of each component, such as for example, the type, manufacture and model of each component. Any information that may be required to be entered into the user interface of the monitoring apparatus may have been recorded inaccurately or not at all by the user. As a result, the configuration information that directs the operation of the monitoring apparatus for communicating with the equipment monitoring components may be inaccurate and/or incomplete. The user may or may not recognize that the entered configuration information is inaccurate or incomplete.
If such a configuration problem is recognized by the user, the user will likely travel (e.g., walk) back to the equipment and attempt to again record any information understood to be relevant to configuring the installed set of equipment monitoring components and then travel back to the monitoring apparatus to re-enter such information via the user interface program. If such a configuration problem is not recognized by the user, the user will cease attempting to properly configure the monitoring apparatus and as a result, the monitoring apparatus will be permitted to operate while being directed by incomplete and/or inaccurate configuration information, potentially causing incorrect processing of signals received from the equipment monitoring components.
The discussion above is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.